“What would it actually be like if you were in the eye of a tornado.” At WonderCon 2014, Warner Brothers presented select footage from their upcoming found footage release Into the Storm. You’ve probably seen a teaser for the film already – and if not, see it here. The under-the-radar film concerns a group of extreme storm chasers who document the ‘storm-of-the-century’ when it hits a small town. Basically it’s ‘Twister On Steroids’. Filmmaker Steven Quale (Final Destination 5) and stars Richard Armitage (The Hobbit trilogy), Arlen Escarpeta (Friday the 13th), Jeremy Sumpter (Peter Pan) & Max Deacon (I, Anna) were on hand to discuss the intense shoot, the found footage genre and ol’ Twister (aside: isn’t it odd how that Jan De Bont flick has become somewhat of a cult classic in recent years). For a full recap of the footage shown and bullet point highlights of the Q&A, hit the jump.
The trailer is pretty much tornado porn. See a tornado destroy a house, a car, a school, a farm, an airplane, even more airplanes… Watch a tornado as it catches fire, as it sucks people straight up into the air, through ventilation systems and passenger car doors. There was some story here about a crew of documentary filmmakers trying to capture the freak storm… but wait – did I mention that a tornado was on fire! At that point, the base impulse for complete and total destruction kicked in. Who cares about these made-up characters? More tornadoes, please.
After the footage screened, the filmmakers and cast came on stage for a brief Q&A. Highlights to which are below.
- Director Steven Quale on the ironic difficulty of finding a location to shoot at: “Ironically we were shooting in Detroit. There were houses that were only half built – so we asked if we could shoot in them. And the real estate agent said ‘Wait a minute -- the price for these homes will plummet if people think a storm struck them.’”
- Richard Armitage on working with practical effects on set: One of the most exciting parts of filming [Into the Storm] was on set most of things we were doing were practical. A sixteen wheeler crashes to the ground [in one scene] and the crew drew a line and said don’t cross it… So there’s a catharsis between the actors and characters. We really felt for what they were going through [because we were] going through it ourselves as well.”
- Quale on balancing the practical effects with the digital ones: “We tried to make whatever is around the actor practical and then add the digital effects to it.” So for instance: in the film -- the extreme winds, heavy rains, and large debris crashing around the cast are real. Only the tornadoes themselves are added digitally afterwards.
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- Quale on the James Cameron touch: “I showed [Into the Storm] to Jim Cameron in a near complete state and he was almost universally positive. So that really felt good. He had one suggestion to add one particular prop to a scene and to utilize it … It was a real full circle experience. Because when Jim showed me Titanic, he incorporated one suggestion I had for him. I suggested that Rose drop the diamond alone instead of with Bill Paxton…”
In the Storm invades theaters August 8th. Click here for all our WonderCon coverage.